The Church's Peace Witness

Marlin E. Miller and Barbara Nelson Gingerich, Editors (1994)
NCR321, $16.95

Order now from Paulist Press!

Wars and strife fill our memories and daily find their way into our consciousness through the media. All Christians confess that Christ's peace is to transform our lives and that we are to bring Christ s peace into the life of the human family. Yet we are divided into separate churches and sometimes take up arms against each other in the name of our separate nations and even in the name of our separate Christian confessions. How does our common confession of Christ call us to account for our division? How does our common vocation in Christ call us to account for differences in how we exercise responsibility in society? How does our common affirmation of the authority of Scripture call us to account for our divided witness in the world? This volume begins a conversation about how Scripture can help us understand the call to reconciliation among the churches, and specifically the call to reconcile in Christ our differences in witness to the world.

"Should Christians be involved in making war? This question has challenged Christians since Jesus taught his followers to turn the other cheek. This book contains thought-provoking essays that treat various facets of that question: war and peace as presented in the Bible, was and peace as divisive issues in the history of the church, an analysis of eleven recent statements made by church bodies, and so on. While these essays do not (and could not) resolve the question of the peace witness of the church, they do provide a helpful overview of the dimensions of the topic and should be useful in fostering ecumenical dialogue on a church-dividing issue."
John Ford
The Catholic University of America